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Monthly Archives: July 2015

Today’s session was the 4th for Man and a Woman in a Room. I don’t know how many more sessions it will need–not a clue. Paintings take on their own personality and this one is adamant bout the direction it wants to go.

I’ve spent a lot of time this week drawing–preparing large paintings that have complicated designs. This morning I pulled out some smaller pieces to do some actual painting. The upper painting, titled Girl in a White Blouse, is my second attempt of this subject. The first effort was smaller and I ruined it by using Old Holland…

I’ve been preparing canvases (stretching, applying gesso and toned grounds) and doing a lot of drawing. I thought Graduation Day was ready for the end game several times but I was wrong. It’s close now. Some things that bothered me have been worked out (no, I won’t tell). Tomorrow, it’s back to drawing.

It’s really overcast today and the studio lights affect tones. It’s either the studio lights or a flash, which would be worse, so the photo isn’t very good. Picnic is 40″ x 56.” It’s oil over acrylic toned ground. The ground is the same as in the painting I finished yesterday, and, as with that painting, the…

I finished Dinner in Trenton this morning. Today’s session was the 20th. Dinner in Trenton is 40″ x 56.” The ground was a little flat; I found myself fighting against it at times. I enjoyed painting the still-life immensely. The arrangement was interesting and sometimes it’s just pure fun to paint accidental effects of light.

Michael J. Lewis‘ long piece in Commentary titled, How Art Became Irrelevant, is a tour de force of cultural analysis. In his well-written and long article (did I mention it is long?), Lewis’ breadth of knowledge provides a wealth of thoughtful observations and quotable passages. To buttress his main thesis, which I think is reasonably embodied in the…

This unfinished painting on the easel, Euclid Avenue II, is from my Playhouse Square series. (Euclid Avenue I has a lot more figures and is still in the drawing stage.) The painting is 4′ x 5′ and simply covering it with paint a bit of chore. I’ve already spent a lot of time on it,…

I bought some cerulean blue from Charvin. Actually, Charvin doesn’t produce a true cerulean blue but something they call ‘cerulean blue hue.’ Charvin produces two lines of paints: Fine, and Extra Fine. This review is about the ‘Fine’ line. I don’t know what Charvin thinks cerulean blue is, but their cerulean blue hue is nothing like…